Chief Minister K. Rosaiah on Tuesday announced that the State government would acquire about 12 acres of land for constructing houses for flood victims. He, however, did not elaborate when and where the land would be acquired. He made this announcement at Ibrahimpatnam near here during his visit to the flood affected Ferry village. However, Mr. Rosaiah sounded categorical in his view that the people living in ‘low-lying areas’ should move to safer places.

He said that the Government was ready to provide alternative housing to the flood victims, but they should move to elevated areas to avoid problems of inundation in the future.

A woman at Ibrahimpatnam told him that they were living in a rented house and lost everything in the floods. She wanted to know whether her family was eligible for housing.

Reacting to it, Mr. Rosaiah said, “The government will provide houses to the flood victims who do not have own houses. They can contact the district Collector and submit applications.”

The visit to Ibrahimpatnam resulted in a massive traffic jam on the National Highway-9 for the vehicles going towards Hyderabad.

The bus in which the Chief Minister travelled was stopped on the National Highway-5 when he went towards Geetha Nagar. He shifted into a car, which stopped at a cross roads in the locality that is nearer to the flood bank. Even though a few women wanted to know the pulse of the government on the contentious issue of shifting of those living on the flood bank, he avoided a discussion on it and left quickly.

Divergent views

Incidentally, Mr. Rosaiah, district in-charge Minister P. Ramachandra Reddy and Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal aired divergent views on the flood bank issue at a press conference on Monday. While Mr. Rosaiah explicitly said that the people living in ‘dangerous places’ would be shifted to safer places, Mr. Rajagopal and others sought to downplay it on the grounds that it was a ‘sensitive’ issue.

Slideshow

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) organised a mock demonstration on ways to rescue people drowning in River Krishna in the presence of its Director General O.P. Singh at Seethanagaram in Guntur District on Tuesday. The Hindu photographer V. Raju captures the action.